


Suga's massive crush and the many problems it causes during the spring prelims

by bewherbal



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant...mostly, Daisuga endgame, Friends With Benefits, M/M, No sex! just intense makeouts!, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Season 2, Suga has a massive crush on Daichi, Sugawara Koushi-centric, Surprisingly not smut, Volleyball, some fade-to-black bc i dont wanna write bout kissing for 3 paragraphs, tsukkiyama if you squint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24660328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewherbal/pseuds/bewherbal
Summary: Suga's been in love with Daichi for years- but knows it's time to move on. Attempting to forget about his feelings for the dark haired captain, he makes some new friends... with benefits. But it turns out that once you've slept with your rivals, things get complicated. As in, Terushima won't stop staring at his ass in the middle of their qualifying match, and Oikawa winks too much.AKA Daichi is surprised by how many of their opponents seem to know Suga pretty well. He's totally not jealous though.
Relationships: Implied Sugawara Koushi/Oikawa Tooru, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Sugawara Koushi/Terushima Yuuji
Comments: 54
Kudos: 251





	1. Sugawara Koushi has a horrible plan that's not thought through very well

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written in a long time that I've tried to polish enough to post. It'll get better as time goes on I swear. :P  
> This chapter is set during s2ep14

August 23rd - Karasuno High Volleyball Practice (Season 2 Episode 14)  


Suga slid his hands up Terushimas muscular chest. Under the taller man's yellow jersey he let his pale fingers feel up his abs, cupping his pecs momentarily to circle his nipples with his thumbs. Johzenji’s captain let out a breathy gasp and Suga pulled the shirt off before closing the gap between their mouths. Terushima’s tongue collided with Suga’s desperately, the warm metal piercing a forign taste to Suga. If he was honest with himself, he was kind of hoping this was going to happen. He’d never felt any oral piercings before, so when Terushima led him to the supply closet wearing a mischievous grin, he had been giddy with excitement.  


The day had started more or less, like any other. The crisp October air had made the sweaty exhaustion of morning practice bearable. Sugawara Koushi and the other members of Karasuno’s volleyball team practiced for an hour longer than usual, trying to make use of as much time as possible before the match against Johzenji High in two months' time. In the last half of practice, when the players usually teamed up to work on their own skills, Yamaguchi broke away from his usual place at Tsukishima’s side in order to serve with Suga. The first year practiced his jump floats and Suga made his way across the net to receive.  


He wasn’t in the starting line up anymore, but it didn’t hurt as badly as he thought it would. He now had more time to hone his skills in other positions and help the newer members learn. Maybe he didn’t have the raw talent of Kagayama, but his seniority meant years more of practice and observation. Observations that let him help out anyone, setter or not.  


“Ah Yamaguchi-san you’re tossing the ball too high again!” He called out, “It’ll be way harder to hit like that!”  


“Sorry Suga!” Yamaguchi responded as his fingertips brushed against the bottom of the ball midair, “Damn, you’re right and I swung too early!” The ball bounced to a stop at his feet and he hung his head wearily. Suga hoped he didn’t notice as Kinoshita managed to hit a jump float of his own across the gym.  


“Keep your head up! You’ll get the next one Yama-chan, I know it!”  


Yamaguchi blushed at the use of the nickname, but stood straighter and readied the next ball. This time he didn’t toss it as high and his palm made a solid connection with the midpoint, sending the ball floating easily across the net.  


“Nice serve!” Suga called out, dropping into a crouch. He started to raise his arms to receive, but the ball shook and started to drop early. Wuuah! He nearly toppled forwards after the ball and sent it back with only contact from his fingertips. Yamaguchi looked ecstatic and stuck out his tongue playfully.  


“Tsukki~ Did you see that?” He turned to his side, forgetting that Tsukishima was blocking in a 3v3 with the second years on the other side of the gym. He realized his friend wasn’t there and his face fell. Suga turned his own eyes to the blonde blocker. Why wasn’t he with Yamaguchi today? The two were normally attached at the hip, especially during free practices. He made his way to Yamaguchi’s side,  


“Why the long face! That was incredible, I almost didn’t get it.”  


Yamaguchi perked up again, “Mmm! Next time it’ll be a service ace for sure.”  


“Yaaaamaguchi-san!” A voice cut in. Suga looked up to see Nishinoya running at them, “That was a great serve! Serve for me now! Me!” The libero skidded to a stop on the other side of the net, already dropped to a crouch.  


“Noya! You can’t leave our game!” Tanaka shouted from all the way across the gym. The two argued, Nishinoya claiming jump floats would be more exciting than their boring ones, and Tanaka shouting that they were in the middle of a match. Yamaguchi looked flustered and Suga laughed. He patted the pinch server on the back and left him with a “Good luck!” before making his way to the water cooler. He took this chance to observe each group in the gym. Hinata had filled in Nishinoya’s spot in the 3v3 game. It was currently Ennoshita, Tsukishima, and Hinata against Tanaka, Kinoshita and Narita. The second years all seemed to be playing well, but Tsukishima seemed more than a little miffed with Hinata and his lackluster receives. Suga watched for a moment, and when he was sure that Tsukishima wasn’t actually annoyed enough to do anything but scoff, he moved on. Daichi and Asahi were teamed up doing serve-receives as well. That left… Kageyama Tobio. Where was he?  


Suga turned to Shimizu and Yachi who were watching from just a little further back than he was.  


“Shimizu-san, have you seen Kageyama today?”  


“Oh!” To Suga’s surprise, it was Yachi that spoke up, “Uhmm, he may be, sneaking… ah,” She flushed and twiddled her fingers anxiously, “intoaobajohsaitowatchapractice” She finished hurriedly. Suga rewound her words in his head. Sneaking into Seijoh? He laughed,  


“Of course he would go to Seijoh, that cocky bastard. We still have to beat two teams before we would even play against them.”  


Well, he has his heart in the right place. They would need every advantage they could get against Seijoh. Suga turned back to the practice and tried to find a position where he could be helpful. Everyone seemed to be doing well. He watched Tsukishima for a moment, still thrown by his actions earlier. Other than Yamaguchi, probably no one else realized he was behaving oddly. Not working with his friend was only part of it, but Suga could practically see the calculations running through his head. He was focusing more than usual on the sport, not even getting distracted to yell at Hinata. Interesting, Suga thought, what could get him so motivated?  


He ended up joining Yamaguchi and Nishinoya again for the rest of practice, switching off between setting, serving and receiving. Shizumu tossed a ball for him to set and he decided to test Yamaguchi a little. He set the ball a little farther right than normal, and close to the net, perfect for a powerful spike, or if it was someone else, a cross court shot. Suga was impressed when Yamaguchi didn’t panic, and hit the ball. He felt bad that sometimes he forgot Yamaguchi was good at more than just his serves.  


“Roooolling Thunderrrr!” Suga landed just in time to see Nishinoya throw himself across the court. He caught the ball with his outstretched arm and it flew gracefully back into the air. Noya tucked himself into a ball and rolled out the momentum. Asahi and Daichi must’ve finished up, because the ace showed up to lecture the tumbling libero about how he could hurt himself.  


Suga felt a hand on his shoulder and resisted the urge to jump. It was only Daichi, one hand on Suga, the other running a towel across his forehead, glistening with sweat. Suga watched his sleeve ride up, exposing his broad shoulder and bicep, flexing with each stroke of the towel. He briefly thought about Daichi sweaty for other reasons, shirtless and flushed, with a- Nope. Not now gay thoughts! Suga shook the image from his head and turned to see what the captain had to say.  


“All right guys, let’s wrap up practice for the morning.” Daichi started his announcement and the rest of the team gathered around, “We’ve all learned a lot back from back to back practice matches in Tokyo with Nekoma and the rest of the Fukurodani Academy Group and the games against Ohgiminami and Kakugawa. Now is our best opportunity to try out some new moves and combos with time to perfect them before a real game. We will have our short practice later tonight so we can prepare for more practice matches tomorrow. And not that I need to remind you, but the qualifier game against Johzenji High is in two months, so stay safe and healthy. We can’t afford to have anyone injured… That said, good work today everyone.” Suga couldn’t help but smile, Daichi was good at giving the facts, but not in a cold way like Tsukishima. The way Daichi did it was motivating, and that's what Suga felt now. The desire to win.  


“Suga, how is Yamaguchi’s float coming?” Daichi asked once the crowd had dispersed, "I’m not sure if we should look to him or Kinoshita as our pinch server against Johzenji.”  


“He hit some nice ones today.”  


“I’ll sub him in during the practice matches then, thanks.” Not wanting Dachi to leave yet, Suga wracked his mind for a conversation starter.  


“Oh, Daichi, did you hear that Kageyama’s out spying on Seijoh today?”  


“Huh? That’s three games away! He should spy on Johzenji instead!”  


Suga chuckled, he knew Daichi was about to backtrack, saying Kageyama shouldn’t be spying at all.  


“Wait- No! He should be here, not spying. The best way to prepare is for us to practice!” Daichi spluttered.  


Suga’s chuckle turned into a full blown laugh as Daichi stumbled over his words. He hit Daichi in the side playfully and his face softened as he joined in with his own sheepish laughter. Suga felt warm, even as the captain took his hand off his shoulder. If he could have this everyday he would. Just him and Daichi happy without a care in the world. They changed in the locker room together, joking around about how Oikawa’s probably going to kill their dear Tobio. Suga ended this practice feeling on top of the world.  


Of course it didn’t last. It never did. Daichi waved to Suga as he departed from the Gym to head home. Alone, a breeze hit and Suga felt the warmth in his cheeks fade. He pouted, indulging his teenage feelings, and watched Daichi’s ass as he walked away. His motivating speech still lingered and Suga didn’t want to just go home and waste the day away. He wanted to practice, to prepare more. Okay, what he really wanted was to confess his love and make out with Daichi, but obviously that was out of the question. He was pretty good at managing his hopeless crush, so he flipped a switch in his mind back to volleyball. The second best thing he could think of to do was go watch Johzenji practice, check out their moves to prepare for the qualifiers. Admittedly, not his greatest idea, breaking into a school, but at least he had a higher chance of survival than Kageyama at Aobajohsai.  


He jumped onto a bus heading towards their competitors school and put in headphones to wait out the ride. His mind wandered as the countryside streaked past outside the window. To no surprise, he went back to thoughts of Daichi. He wondered if he’d get over this crush when they went off to separate colleges. It’s been 3 years, Suga really needs to get over him, he’s having a hard time staying sane like this. He was a horny teenager for god's sake, constantly surrounded by other, sweaty teenagers in short shorts. His ability to keep his dick in his pants was rather impressive he would say. He could- pleasure himself, of course, but it just wasn’t the same as getting dicked down by a strong muscular volleyball player.  


Thankfully the bus pulled to a stop outside Johzenji High before Suga’s fantasies could get any further. He exited the bus blushing at his own thoughts and gave a half hearted thank you to the driver. The brick campus loomed before him. He guessed the gym would be further back into the campus so he started walking. Because it was a weekend it was fairly empty. No students bustling about in their olive green suits. Probably for the best, this way Suga didn’t stand out so much.  


He headed along a gravel walkway through a pleasant courtyard and in the distance he could see a building large enough to be the gym. Before he could get closer he heard a faint voice mumbling to itself.  


“Oh I’ll get the towels for you Misaki. _Idiot_ , she probably thinks that _I think_ that she can’t get her own towels.”  


The owner of the voice rounded the corner and turned out to be Johzenji’s libero. Suga wracked his brain to remember the man's name. Arawn? Atara?  


“Arata, face it, she’ll never like you” he said to himself critically.  


Tsuchiyu Arata, that was it! Suga stood awkwardly- not knowing if he should make his presence known or not. Especially after the conversation the libero seemed to be having with himself. He wanted to try to help him out, but making his presence known might foil his plan. Tsuchiyu ended up being too busy overthinking to notice, and walked right past Suga without a second glance. Suga chuckled awkwardly and left the courtyard the way that Tsuchiyu had come.  


Just around the corner he came face to face with Johzenji High’s gymnasium. He shuffled off the side -carefully stepping over some plants- to a window. He looked in on a lively sight. A 2v2 game going all out. Their team captain Terushima Yuji had his back to Suga and he watched as he launched himself across the court to catch a ball that anyone else would've counted as out of bounds. When he actually managed to connect with the ball, Suga couldn’t believe his eyes. Terushima not only hit the ball from an odd angle out of bounds, but he spiked the ball back over the net with considerable force. Apparently Johzenji was used to this, because no one inside the gym looked shocked at the incredible move, A player with dark hair on the other side of the net even fell in position to receive the ball.  


The game continued as if nothing odd had happened. Suga watched in awe as points were scored for both sides. Maybe Karasuno should try out 2v2 games, it would shake things up a little, improve teamwork. If they switched the teams up each time it would give people the opportunity to work with players they don’t normally work with. Kinoshita and Hinata would make an interesting pair- it would force Hinata into more of a setter-like role- and give Kinoshita a chance to play on the front lines. Tanaka and Yamaguchi could be interesting too… He must’ve gotten lost in thought because he didn’t notice Tsuchiyu come up behind him.  


“Uh- can I help you?” The libero called out shyly from his place by the gym doors. Suga blanched and realized how this looked. Here he was, a rival player, off the path, on his tip-toes, face pressed against the window and peering into the gym. Maybe Tsuchiyu wouldn’t recognise him?  


“Hey wait aren’t you the setter from Karasuno?”  


_Shit._ Suga put his hands up defensively and opened his mouth, ready to try to explain. Before he could though, Tsuchiyu turned away and headed into the gym. Huh? In retrospect, Suga could’ve taken this moment to run off or hide, instead he stood dumbly as Tsuchiyu alerted the captain to his presence. Moments passed, Suga still trying -and failing- to think of a plan, when the doors opened again. Terushima Yuji stood in his yellow jersey with his hands on his hips.  


“Well, well, well, a spy? What am I gonna do with you?”


	2. Terrible plan fails as expected... but something good comes from it after all

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a POV switch to Terushima in between the arrows: ---><\---  
> There's also a little flashback(?) that's in between arrows as well.
> 
> This chapter was supposed to cover a lot more but I got carried away and now its just Suga lusting over Terushima for way too long. Now I have to extend the number of final chapters by 1 whoops.

Instead of yelling at him, or kicking him off campus, Terushima led Suga up to the gym’s second floor balcony. He watched the faux blonde take the stairs two at a time, still sweaty, leg muscles tense from practice. He found himself wishing his shorts would ride up just a little more.  


“You came here to watch us before our match, yeah? That’s totally cheating dude” Despite the accusation, Terushima laughed, “It’s alright, I’d totally wanna watch us too.”  
They reached the lofted area and Terushima patted one of the seat benches- motioning for Suga to sit.  


“You can watch from here… Suga… mura?”  


Suga almost choked- Sugamura? That's his name and Daichi’s together. Ugh, he was kinda hoping to forget about Daichi on this little trip.  


“It’s Sugawara, Sugawara Koushi.” He corrected him with a red face. He did sit down however, and Terushima flashed one of his cocky smiles.  


“Alright Sugawara-san, you just sit here and check out our moves okay? I’ll figure out how to make us even afterwards.” Now that Terushima was standing facing him, he caught glimpses of the metal piercing on his tongue as he talked. Suga was instantly entranced and he wished the captain would talk more, it didn't matter what the subject was. And Suga liked his voice, it was smooth and cheery, yet still deep and mischevious. He breifly wondered how it would sound out of breath, and passionate- okay Suga, enough dirty thoughts! He shook his head.  


\-->  
Suga didn’t realize that he had been staring at Terushima’s mouth for the past minute, but Terushima himself sure did. He was so used to the piercing that he had forgotten it was there and so he thought Suga was staring for another reason. He let his own eyes flick down towards the gray haired boy’s lips. They were pulled into a soft, pleasant smile. He took in the rest of the other man. Even with a sweatshirt on, Suga’s muscular volleyball form was evident. His body wasn’t the only good looking thing- his face was plenty nice too. Terushima felt a little weird standing over Suga like this, the other was technically his senpai. Before the silence could grow awkward Terushima left the loft, but even when he went back to practice, he found his thoughts wandering back to Karasuno’s third year setter.  
<\--  


Suga watched as Johzenji’s coach called for another 2v2 game. Terushima and an ashy haired boy in jersey number 4, versus Tsuchiyu and a nervous looking number 7. Terushima called out to his team member,  


“Higashi! Let’s show these guys who’s boss” He smirked, looking up and catching Suga’s eye. Suga was still reeling from every interaction he’d had since being caught, but the blow of the whistle signaling the start of the game snapped him into focus. He came here to learn about Johzenji’s play style and even though it wasn’t going exactly according to plan, he could still get information. He took off his coat and settled in to watch.  


The game started with a service ace from Terushima- no surprise there. His team quickly took the lead, Terushima surprisingly falling into the role of setter so number 4- Higashi- could spike. Each time he set he would make eye contact with Suga. Suga knew it was probably just to make sure he hadn’t run off, but the fact that he looked up while setting? It was a cocky, showing off kind of move; However, the fact that he was trying to show off to Suga meant something. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a failure of a mission after all, Suga thought as an idea grew in his mind.  


He leaned forward against the railing and rested his chin in his palm. He softened his intense gaze and let himself just stare dreamily at Terushima. It wasn’t too hard to fake. The relaxed posture and easy-going expression threw the captain for a loop when he looked up again. Suga was flat out checking him out and this time it was Terushima who blushed a bright red. With his focus elsewhere, the ball he was setting rolled awkwardly off his fingers. It was now Suga’s turn to smirk as Terushima realized his mistake and looked in horror at the ball dropping to the floor. In a flash though, Higashi was there. With an outstretched fist he hit the ball inches from the ground. It wobbled up through the air and brushed over the net. Higashi slid across the floor with the momentum and Terushima had to grab his ankles to stop him from sliding onto the opposing team’s side of the court.  


Suga’s little experiment was forgotten as he watched the other team receive the shaky ball. Terushima jumped from grabbing his friend to receiving in the blink of an eye. The game continued once again as if nothing odd had happened. How crazy was this team that this would be a normal occurrence? And how did no one else realize how powerful they were?  


Suga thought back to what he knew about the team. Didn’t their banner say ‘simplicity and fortitude’? That made no sense- they were anything but ‘simple’. Energetic and impulsive was more like it. Maybe it was just the nature of the 2v2 games, the lack of multiple positions forced everyone to play many different rolls. Terushima was able to spike, set and receive, all in one game. What he knew for sure is that this isn’t how Johzenji was last year. The third years leaving and Terushima taking over was definitely the start of a new era. Usually such a big change would cause some conflicts between the players and coaches, and what really amazed Suga was how well everyone seemed to be getting along. Even in the middle of an intense match, players on both sides were joking and there were a few close calls because of people laughing too hard to properly receive.  


Suga was staring dreamily now- but he wasn’t faking at all. All of a sudden Terushima had become one of the coolest people in the world. He looked amazing when he threw back his head to laugh and when he stuck his tongue out just a little to focus. Suga found himself cheering for the man without realizing it. He jumped up with joy when Terushima hit another ball off balance from out of bounds and he found himself laughing at the jokes that were loud enough for him to hear. The game ended at 25-20 with a flawless setter dump from Terushima, who had the audacity to wink at Suga while doing so.  


Suga was still blushing when Terushima came to join him on the second floor. His blush only reddened when Terushima sat, pulling up the bottom of his shirt to air out.  


“Like what you see?” Terushima asked.  


“Uhm, “ Suga stammered, brain currently transfixed on Terushima’s bare abs. “Yeah the game was great! You guys are really energetic.” He said lamely.  


“Hah, that’s not what I meant-” Terushima muttered under his breath, “Didja learn anything useful about us? Gonna go back and tell your team?”  


“Yeah, I guess… It’s a little embarrassing now that I’ve been caught though.”  


“Caught spying on us, or caught staring at my abs?”  


Suga snapped his eyes back up to Terushima’s face so quickly that it hurt his neck. At this point he was too flustered to even try to explain himself. Surprisingly, the other man was blushing too, and eyeing Suga in a similar way. All too quickly Suga knew what was going to happen. He was going to get laid today.  


\-->  
Last year Suga’s crush had been at its worst. He was failing classes and skipping practices, all because it physically hurt him to see Daichi. Daichi who was dating Michimiya Yui at the time. Each time Suga saw them together his dumb teenage hormones made him want to cry. And if he saw him without Yui at his side, then Suga’s dumb teenage hormones made him unbelievably horny. The crying he could handle, paste on a smile and save it for when he got home, but hiding a boner during practice wasn’t so easy. While avoiding volleyball, he ended up spending some time with the track team and one of their members had actually asked him out. They went on a few dates and lucky for Suga, made out a bunch. Apparently all it took to tame his libido was a single night of physical intimacy.  


He was too sore for practice the next day, but the day after he had apologized profusely to Daichi and the team for his absences. With a renewed focus, he and Daichi crushed their practice match that week. For the first time in a long time he felt truly great.  


He went on three more dates, and three spectacular orgasms later, he broke up with the other boy because he didn't want to lead him on. The other clearly liked him for more than just his body, and while Suga wished he could say the same, it just wasn’t true. His heart belonged to Karasuno's dark haired captain. After the boy from the track team, he had a few dates, in hopes that someone would break him free of his crush. They never did, and eventually he fell into the routine of having casual hookups roughly every month. As there wasn’t an infinite population of gay men that were into Suga, he kind of had a few… Friends with benefits. He was embarrassed to admit that Oikawa was saved in his phone as ‘Booty Call’. It was Oikawa’s doing of course, but he never bothered to change it.  
<\--  


Now, eye fucking Johzenji’s captain, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d end up with another number in his phone.  


“I… think I know how I can apologize for the intrusion.” Suga said, inching closer.  


“Oh yeah? Why don’t you tell me how?” Suga could feel the other boy’s breath now, and Terushima made no effort to back away.  


“How ‘bout I show you-” Suga cut himself off by closing the gap between him and the blonde.  


The kiss was incredible, Terushima obviously knew what he was doing and Suga would’ve loved to sit back and let him take the lead, in fact, he was very curious about what the other would do, but he was the one apologizing, so he had to put in some effort. He pulled himself closer, and ran one of his hands through Terushima’s hair. Terushima’s own hands found a grip on Suga’s shirt, and a few moments later, pulled the setter onto his lap.  


“Terushima-san, Is this okay?” Suga asked while pulling back to take a breath.  


Also breathless, Terushima replied all at once, “God yes, better than okay, you can just call me Teru, _please_ continue.” And then went in for another kiss. Suga cupped Terushima’s head in his hands and pressed himself in close. He let his tongue slip out, just enough to brush against Teru’s lips. Suga felt the other boy melt into his mouth, lips parting to allow access. When the kiss progressed to tongue, Teru let out a faint moan and Suga blushed again, oddly proud. Suga slipped his hands down to Terushima’s waist and hooked a thumb under the lip of his jersey.  


“mMmnnm” Teru encouraged, pulling the gray haired boy with him as he started to lean back. The two boys lay horizontal now, bodies flush- ooor they would’ve if not for the fact that they were on a bench. A fact Terushima seemed to forget as he pulled Suga down on top of him, leaning back far enough to lose his center of balance and ungracefully fall to the floor.  


“Ah, haha..ha, whoops” He laughed, sitting back up. He took a second to regain his composure, smoothing his hair back down and shyly biting at his lip, “I guess we probably shouldn’t be doing this here anyway huh”  


Suga sat up slowly, taking the statement as a sign to leave. He grabbed his sweater from where it had been pushed aside to the floor.  


“Wait, Sugawara, you don’t have to go, let's just… relocate.”  


Well, he did get his name right this time- and, Suga had to admit he didn’t want this to end so soon.  


“Alright Teru, where did you have in mind?” He asked while helping the other boy off the ground, “And everyone calls me Suga” He added as an afterthought.  


Terushima grabbed his hand to pull him from the balcony, down the stairs into the gym. There was no one else in sight and the floor was clean, meaning practice was over for the day. The tall blonde pointed to a small door on the other side of the gym and asked,  


“Is ah, the equipment closet okay?” Teru asked embarrassedly, as if he was apologizing for not taking Suga home to his bed. Suga didn’t need that luxury, and it wouldn’t be the first time he’d been railed in a dark equipment room. To let him know that he was onboard with the plan, Suga took the lead towards the door, pressing Teru against it with a kiss.  


“nnMm” Terushima faltered for a moment before kissing back and fumbling for the door handle. He found it and the door swung inwards suddenly, almost sending the boys toppling to the floor once again. Suga used the momentum to press Teru back against a rack of volleyballs. His hands made their way to the other boy's waist and in return Teru’s hands slipped up into his hair.  


The first time they kissed, Suga hadn’t gotten a chance to really explore Teru’s mouth or body before they had fallen over. This time he was determined to. He snaked his tongue out against Teru’s lips, this time more of a heads up rather than testing the waters. Terushima parted his lips, allowing Suga entrance. Their tongues collided with a frantic intensity. The cold barbell of Teru’s piercing was a pleasant shock that sent a chill down Suga’s spine. They made out almost rhythmically, pressing themselves together and wholly lost in the moment.  


Suga didn’t know how much time passed before he realized he had gotten sweaty from their body heat being trapped in such a small room. Good thing there was a simple solution. He hooked his fingers under Terushima's shirt, and after feeling up his chest, he pulled the jersey off. He smiled through the kiss as he grabbed Teru’s hands to guide them down to the hem of his own shirt. He pulled away from the others face for just long enough to say,  


“Is it hot in here? Or is it just me”  


Teru’s response was to smirk while stripping off Suga’s shirt and burying his face in Suga’s neck. He arched his back in response as Teru nibbled at his skin and bit at his tongue to avoid letting out an embarrassing noise. Half worried he was losing control, Suga let his hands slide down Teru’s back to straddle his hips and pull himself closer. The blonde looked up through his lashes and Suga’s heart stopped momentarily. He pushed their foreheads together and looked into the other boys’ deep brown eyes.  


“Is this okay Yuji?”  


“Oh, _absolutely_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give it that good 'ol fade to back because I used up all my descriptions in one paragraph :P They r making out w/o some clothes, but keep in mind they are teeeens, 17 & 18 y/o! I'm not gonna write any more bout what could happen next and nothing will get more explicit than this in the rest of this fic! stay safe, love yall.


	3. Night practice means everyone has issues they need to resolve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3,000 words, new record!

The bus back to Karasuno High was quiet…. But long and uncomfortable. Suga was hot and sweaty, and the barely-open windows weren't helping. He scrolled through his phone absently to pass the time- and was interrupted by a text from Yuji- his most recent addition to his contacts list.

_Teru: Q: If U caught me spying on ur team_

_Teru: What would the punishment B? ;P_

He replied back with a simple, yet flirty: Why don’t you find out? Then he realized his team was full of idiots who consistently stayed late at practice and would undoubtedly catch Teru if he ever tried to peep. If anyone saw, and knew the guy, then they would probably assume he was checking out Kiyoko. Then the team would go into attack mode to ‘defend’ her- and honestly, Suga would’ve done the same before today. If Tanaka and Nishinoya didn’t kill him, Suga would have to explain his relationship with Johzenji’s Captain, which would end up being a whole other problem. He quickly revised his text:

_Suga: wait uh, actually you probably shouldn’t come 2 a practice_

_Suga: our libero might kill u :P_

_Suga: just txt me if you ever want 2 ‘re-enact’ the equipment room tho_

_Suga: i’d like if it wasn’t just a 1time thing_

_Suga: ;-)_

After hitting send on the last message, he breifly felt self-conscious about sending so many texts. Daichi was the kind of person to be concise via text, something Suga never picked up on, but was always aware of. Logically he knew that Yuji wouldn’t be annoyed- not at erratic texting, but he didn’t want to come off too strong. Or weird. He buried his hands in his hair and shook his head. Stop overthinking, damn it!

He went back to scrolling through memes on his phone. It was a tried-and-true effective distraction from most anything. The buildings outside blurred past as the bus pulled onto a highway and picked up speed. Suga had left for Johzenji while the sun was still high in the sky, but noon had come and gone and now the first hints of a pinkish sunset reflected off the wet road. He had lost track of time during the events in the equipment room and now he was surely going to be late to evening practice. 

He dialed Daichi’s number and tried very hard not to think about the feeling of Teru kissing his neck. When he inevitably failed, he tried very hard to not imagine it was Daichi instead. He failed this too and nearly threw his phone in surprise when Daichi’s voice came through the receiver.

“Suga?”

“ehh, yes?” He stammered, distracted by how great his name sounded in the other boy’s mouth.

“What? You’re the one that called me, Suga.”

“Eeeeeh,” Suga scrambled to pull his brain together, “Oh, yes! Haha. I uhm, am going to be late to practice tonight. I was ah, feeling a little sick.”

“Are you feeling alright now?” Daichi asked, voice full of genuine concern, “You seem a little… scrambled.”

“Awww you care! Haha, I’m feeling better. All that was unrelated don’t worry.”

“Okay, well, take it easy when you get here.” Daichi sounded unsure, “You need to keep your strength for the practice match tomorrow”

“Sure thing.” The bus pulled to a stop a few streets from the school and Suga jumped off. “See you in 10, Daichi!”

“Take care.”

“You too.”

Suga hung up and pulled his jacket tighter against the cold air. A cold wind blew past and he pulled his scarf out. He stopped to wrap it twice around his neck, leaving both ends to hang down in front. He continued walking, hands in his pockets, wishing he had brought gloves. 

As Karasuno High appeared in his sights he started thinking about what he had learned about Johzenji. Not the fact that their captain liked having his ears pulled, but rather facts about their play style. Simplicity and Fortitude was written on their banner, but it was deceiving to how the team really played. They were wildly unpredictable, not unlike Karasuno. But their 2v2 matches and some of their moves, like Teru’s off-balance receive from the end line, were proof that they’ve been practicing crazy techniques for a lot longer. Most importantly, their teamwork was unbelievable. The whole team had complete faith in eachother. 

Karasuno was still working on that. They were close- Hinata and Kageyama’s quick proved that, but some of the other first years had yet to mesh. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi trusted each other, but still needed to work with others. Er- Tsukishima needed to work with others. And the second years needed to trust themselves, Ennoshita to lead, Nishinoya to trust his receives, and poor Narita needed to stop thinking himself unworthy of being on the team. Suga and the third years weren’t without their faults either. In whole, their team wasn’t quite as insanely insync as Johzenji, and that made the other team a huge threat. It’s going to be a difficult road to Nationals this year. He thought to himself as he stepped onto Karasuno’s campus. But, we might actually have a fighting chance for once!

He shuffled into the gym and was immediately called out by Hinata,

“Suga-san! Are you feeling okay? Daichi said you were sick! You can’t get sick!” The orange-haired boy exclaimed, turning to face him even though he was supposed to be in a match.

“I’m alrigh- Watch out!” Bonk. Suga winced as a ball hit Hinata in the back of the head. He could hear Tsukishima snickering, and saw Yamaguchi elbow him to shut him up. Huh, usually the other boy would laugh along.

“Ow” Hinata rubbed the back of his head, “I’m alright! Don’t worry!”

“Hinata! Don’t just stand there-”

Taking advantage of the distraction, Suga slipped into the locker room, shutting the door just as Tanaka started to apologize. He entered the combination to his locker and pulled out the clean gym clothes resting inside. Unwinding his long scarf, he shoved it back into the locker. He then hurried to take off his coat to swap his shirt with a gym sweatshirt instead. He pulled off his jeans slowly, next, fingers lingering on his thighs. He pressed against them gently, remembering how Terushima had held him earlier.

He heard the door creak- as if someone was holding the handle on the other side, ready to open it- so he pulled his shorts on and bent down to put on his shoes. The door opened and Yamaguchi slid in, fiddling with his sleeves. When he didn’t head straight to the bathroom stalls like Suga expected, he looked up at the other boy. He was looking at his feet and biting his lip, like he wanted to say something.

“Hey, Yamaguchi-kun, what’s up?”

“Oh, Suga, uh, I was wondering if you would-” He looked up, finally making eye contact, and faltered, “You.. w-ould like…” The younger boy's face started to flush a deep red.

“Huh? Would I like to... what?” Probably, I mean, I’m down for most things” Suga chuckled, rambling so Yamaguchi didn’t feel awkward with his own stammering. His plan didn’t seem to be working though because the boy was red as a tomato and looking at his feet again.

“You have a little… something on… your…” Yamaguchi trailed off, but brought his hand up to gesture at his neck.

“Huh?” Suga touched his neck and instantly realized why Yamaguchi was so embarrassed. He stood up and took a couple steps to look in the mirror. His hair was a little ruffled, he could smooth that down, but what he couldn’t fix were the hickies on his neck. Bright red, a stark contrast to his pale skin. _Shit._ Why hadn’t he stopped Teru in the moment? He should’ve known better. Oh my god, what did the lady of the bus think!? He felt his face heating up too. He was Yamaguchi’s Senpai, he was supposed to be a role model! And here he was, caught red-handed….er, necked.

“Well this is embarrassing.” He said, still looking at his neck in the mirror. Maybe he could keep covering it with the scarf? No, he couldn’t wear a scarf to practice. “Look ah, I’m not dating anyone or anything so If you could maybe not tell everyone or make a big deal about it?”

“Um, yeah of course!” Yamaguchi responded too quickly, and an awkward silence fell over the locker room. After a minute had passed, of Suga trying to think of a way to sneak out of practice, Yamaguchi spoke again,

“Do you want some, er, concealer?”

“That would be a huge help,” Suga said, relieved. He turned back to follow the other to his locker. Rubbing at the marks self consciously while Yamaguchi rummaged around in his bag. 

“Here, it’s a little darker than your color would be but it’s your neck so no one should notice.” He handed Suga the plastic tube, “It’s pretty heavy duty too. Good for covering tattoos and won't sweat off during practice.”

“Eh, do you have tattoos?” Suga asked, unscrewing the lid.

“Haha, I wish…um, no, that’s just the hardest thing to cover with a concealer.”

“Not that this isn’t great, but why do you have it?” He asked while walking to the mirror again to apply it. Yamaguchi was silent for a moment before he spoke,

“I used to get beat up sometimes and I would want to hide the bruises, I guess I just carry it around out of habit.” He said, smiling sadly.

Suga hoped it really was out of habit, not necessity anymore, but he made a mental note to keep an eye on the younger boy just in case. He dabbed some concealer onto the marks and rubbed it in. When all the evidence of his day with Terushima had been erased, he returned the concealer and finished tying his shoes.

“So, uh, who were you with?” Yamaguchi asked cautiously .

“Ah, you wouldn’t know him, I kinda just met him… it was a one-time thing… you know..” Suga half lied, still flustered. It was more than he would’ve told anyone else, but for some reason he felt comfortable talking to Yamaguchi. It wasn’t until after he finished talking though that he realized his mistake.

“Him?” Yamaguchi cocked his head. He looked confused, but with no malice in his eyes. Rather, he looked more surprised, if not… excited? Hopeful, perhaps? Huh, Suga wasn’t expecting that.

“Oh... uh” Suga faltered, “I…” It was his turn to blush, he hadn’t planned on coming out, but oh well, “I like guys?”

“Cool. cool, I wasn’t trying to be, like, rude in asking-, it’s just- uh. Im happy for you! Cool cool. Veryyyy cool I’m going togopracticenowokaybye” Yamaguchi stuttered and turned to leave.

“Wait, Yamaguchi-kun?” Suga called out.

“Yeah?”

“What was it you came in here to ask? Before all this…”

“Oh. Uh,” Yamaguchi stopped with a hand on the door and turned around sheepishly, “Would you set for me today? I want to practice spiking.”

“Sure thing!”

\-----

After a quick set of warm up stretches, Suga stepped out onto the court. With Yachi tossing volleyballs, Suga started setting for Yamaguchi to spike. He probably wouldn’t ever need to in an actual game, being a pinch server and all, but it was good to be prepared just in case. Playing outside one's roll is something Johzenji did, so Suga was happy to experiment with it. Yamaguchi on the other hand- despite suggesting the activity- seemed distracted. His spikes were sloppy and poorly timed and he kept gazing across the gym at Tsukishima. It was admittingly nice, not having to dart back and forth to receive, he was a little wiped out from morning practice and his run in with Yuji, but Yamaguchi’s lack of enthusiasm was concerning. And just a tad bit irritating too, everyone needed to have their head in the game if they were going to make it to nationals.

He caught the next ball in his hands when Yachi threw it. Yamaguchi was still lost in thought, and it took him a second to notice. When he finally seemed to register Suga standing before him holding the ball, he blinked and cocked his head in confusion.

“Yamaguchi… Is everything alright with you and Tsukishima?” Suga confronted him.

“Hah, wh-a” He fiddled with his sleeves again, “what makes you say that?”

“You can’t stop looking over at him for long enough to hit the ball.”

“Ah, sorry.” 

“So… is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we had a bit of an argument… I think it’s okay though. I just need to give him a little more time.”

“Oh? What about?”

“Hinata asked him if he could block Ushijima and he just said ‘no way’, It’s like he’s giving up before he’s even tried. So uh, ironically, I told him to take practice more seriously… but now I’m the one slacking off, sorry!” 

Suga had noticed the same thing, Tsukishima leaving practice early, or even just on-time, was such a stark contrast to the other players who always stayed late. Even Kinoshita and Narita stayed late, just to hang back and observe. Tsukishima was potentially one of their strongest players, with his height and keen eyes, but if he didn’t put in the work then he wouldn’t out shine any other tall blocker. And his lack of enthusiasm could bring down the rest of the team too.

“I’m proud of you calling him out Yamaguchi-kun!” Suga grinned and bonked him on the head, “I’m sure you guys will be fine, he’s probably impressed you stood up to him too!”

“Thanks Suga.” 

“But now it’s time for you to practice!” He cackled as he tossed the ball, “Hit this!”

“Wuahh,” Yamaguchi scrambled to find his footing as he jumped to hit the ball.

The two of them practiced, better than before, for half an hour before practice was interrupted by Kageyama finally making an appearance. The dark-haired boy slid open the gym doors and walked into the gym- where he was immediately singled out by Hinata. The smaller boy once again left his game to bound over to where Kageyama stood. Suga and Yamaguchi, interested to find out what he had learned, slid closer to watch.

“The great Kageyama returns!” Hinata exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement.

Kageyama on the other hand stood perfectly still, lost in thought.

“I may never be able to win against Oikawa.” He responded.

“Eh? Quit messing around!” Hinata rebuked, raising his voice and crossing his arms.

The rest of the team, curious about the raised voices, gathered around as well. Daichi took one look at Kageyama and his eyebrows furrowed, ready to tell him off about skipping practice.

“Be serious, what did you learn?” Hinata asked and Suga snickered at the fact that he was apparently in on the plan. Kageyama turned to address the whole team when he spoke,

“Seijoh was having a practice match against a college team. They played where they swapped some players so Oikawa was setting for the other team.” Suga actually liked the sound of that, maybe when they played the Neighbourhood association they could try swapping players. He glanced at Daichi to see his expression softened- he was probably thinking something similar.

“Oikawa looked like it was his first time meeting the college players, but before the first set was over he had blended completely into the team. Soon they we’re all giving it 100%” The longer he spoke the paler his face grew. Hinata looked downright terrified too, but when Kageyama stopped speaking he snapped himself out of it to jab at him,

“So are you saying you’re freaked out by the Great King?” Hinata stuck out his tongue.

“...”

“Yeah, I am freaked out.” Kageyama almost whispered with an eerie smile. The intensity in his eyes was enough to make Hinata shiver. Suga felt a cold sweat too, the pressure was catching up to him. If they lost to Seijoh again It would be the last match he’d play with this team. Dammit He wasn’t ready to be done yet… or ever.

“The three years that Oikawa spent… “ Kageyama spoke again, “Everything is packed into the current Seijoh team and the spring nationals are the only chance to go up against it.” He smiled again, this time less creepy, and his eyes were filled with determination,

“We’re going to beat them, as a team.”

The gym was dead silent for a moment, everyone feeling the weight of Kageyama’s words. Daichi’s anger was forgotten- he now smiled- proud of Kageyama’s speech and Its impact on the team.

“YEAH!” Hinata shouted, breaking the silence and grabbing a ball out of Tanaka’s hands next to him,

“Defeat the Great King!” He yelled, running back towards the nets and readying a serve.

“Th..That’s my line!” Kageyama stuttered for a moment before taking off after the orange haired boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This last scene is almost word for word a conversation in s2 ep14- the next chapter will switch over to ep15


	4. hey siri, what does it mean when the guy you're dreaming about holds ur hand in real life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I played volleyball IRL before covid (just made varsity too :,< ) and writing this really makes me miss the sport. Anyway, I hope its not too long and drawn out. Whatever story I write next will have better pacing... probably
> 
> btw's there's been a bit of a time skip ~2 months. Its a little confusing, but the episodes s2 e14 -> e15 had the same time skip so,,

October 24th- The day before the game against Johzenji

Suga woke up with his arms wrapped around his pillow and his blanket discarded by his feet; the result of a restless night. _Beep Beep Beep_ , his alarm blared from the nightstand beside him. Without looking up, he lifted his arm and blindly fumbled around until he hit the snooze button. He let out a sign of relief as the jarring sound stopped and he buried his face further into his pillow to try to return to his dream about Daichi. Where had it left off? Oh yeah, volleyball practice. Daichi was asking him something.  


“Suga,” Dream Daichi said with a soft smile, “Would you set for me?”  


“Of course I’ll set for youuu.” Suga responded, mumbling sleepily into his pillow. Dream Daichi, who was down on one knee from tying his shoes, turned to look at Suga. He grabbed a volleyball that was conveniently beside him and held it up to the silver haired boy. Suga reached out for the ball and brushed against Daichi’s fingers… A thought crossed his mind, _This kinda looks like a propos-_ but he was interrupted once again by the alarm. _BEEP BEEP BEEP._  


With an annoyed groan, he gave up and cracked open an eye. He already knew what it would say, but the flashing green letters confirmed it, 5:30 AM. Sitting up and turning his alarm off properly, he pouted as the dream was already fading. He was sure it had been about Daichi- most of his dreams were, but there was no drool on his pillow so it wasn’t one of those dreams. He wracked his brain but by the time he had gotten dressed it had completely faded.  


He donned shorts and a light sweater as he headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. While he was rarely hungry so early in the morning, it was important to eat before practice. Back before the original Coach Ukai coached them, he was in the habit of skipping breakfast and having a large lunch instead. After one day of Ukai’s intense training -and almost passing out- he gave in and made himself food every morning. He knew that today's practice would be intense to prepare for the game tomorrow, so he heated up some leftover soup and chicken while he made rice.  


He packed the extras into a container and added it to his pre-made lunch. He liked to bring extra food for his kouhais because they kept stealing and sharing food with each other. Better something nutritious and homemade than convenience store snacks. He was proud of the fact that even Tsukishima, known for barely even eating his own lunch, would borrow from Suga’s lunchbox. He grabbed his school bag and looked around to see if he was missing anything. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the clock that now read 5:50 and he knew he had to hurry to make it in ontime. Carrying his gym duffle over his left shoulder and his backpack on his right he left his house and started jogging to Karasuno High.  


He silently cursed himself- If he had woken up earlier he might’ve run into Daichi or Asahi on their ways to school. Sadly though, the trip was uneventful and he arrived at Karasuno High’s Gym at 6:10. Practice didn’t actually start until 6:30, but someone had to set up the gym and usually that responsibility fell on the third years. He hoped he hadn’t kept the others waiting. To his surprise though, when he pushed open the doors, he found the net already hung, and some of his teammates already practicing. The other third years were expected, but on the other side of the net were Yamaguchi and Tsukishima.  


“Daichi! You should’ve called me,” Suga announced himself, ”I want to be in on whatever this is!”  


“It’s not like you to be late,” He fake scolded in response.  


Suga quickly set down his bags and started stretching to warm up. The game he interrupted continued and he wondered how long it had been going on for. There was no scoreboard set up, but the way that the first years were sweating implied that this game hadn’t just begun. Seeing Tsukishima here so early made him happy and it was obvious that Yamaguchi was excited about it too.  


The match looked like it was set up as a 2v2 that allowed Tsukishima to block directly against Asahi’s spikes. However, Suga quickly noticed that in between spikes there was a weird lull. Neither team had players who were comfortable setting and that limited the possibility of Asahi spiking. Without a set to send the ball where it needed to go, Asahi could only spike at full power when the ball just happened to end up in front of him. Yamaguchi was having the same problem, Tsukishima was a blocker- and this game was focused on that- but it left Yamaguchi struggling to fill in the other rolls.  


Suga was excited, he had mentioned Johzenji’s 2v2 games to Daichi in passing, but they hadn’t tried them out yet. By the looks of it, Daichi wanted to get more experience with them before dedicating a whole practice to it. He finished warming up and stood to watch the game from the sidelines. He called out encouragement and continued to take notes in his head. He watched Daichi hit the ball across the net and Tsukishima dropped into a crouch to receive it. It flew back up into the air and Yamaguchi jumped to hit it across. Suga felt like he was watching in slo-mo, the ball was too far back and too low for Yamaguchi to hit it over the net. Sure enough, Yamaguchi hit the ball, but it collided with the net.  


“Dammit!” Yamaguchi panted, hands-on-his-knees out of breath. Asahi went to collect the ball and Suga jogged onto the court. He had an idea. Tsukishima watched him approach, oddly attentive, as if he was actually interested in advice. If that’s what he wanted, then Suga would give it. He stepped up next to the taller boy and sent a karate chop into his side.  


“Tsukishima-kun! Be nicer,” He scolded as the blonde doubled over with the breath knocked out of him, “Did you expect Yamaguchi to set that ball for you? No? Then you were expecting him to hit your shoddy receive over the net?”  


“Shoddy?” Tsukishima growled, recovering and standing straight again.  


“If you weren’t going to block it- then you could’ve set it to him” Suga stated. Tsukishima looked confused, so Suga continued, “You’ve got a good eye for the ball. I’m not saying you dedicate a lot of time to it, but you spend so much time close to the net you might as well learn some setting skills. If you had set that last ball to Yamaguchi it would’ve been close enough for him to spike.”  


“I don’t think-” Tsukishima started to decline, but Suga wasn’t having it. He grabbed the ball from Asahi and tossed it up.  


“Set it!” He called out, now drawing the attention of the other players.  


Tsukishima looked annoyed that everyone was watching and that Suga had put him in the spotlight, but he raised his hands anyway. The ball fell on his outstretched fingers and he pushed it back up. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. The ball soared over Suga’s head and Yamaguchi caught it on the sideline of the court.  


“See?” Suga beamed and clapped Tsukishima on the back, “Try that at some point, yeah?” He stepped off the court so they could continue their game, but pointed at Daichi before he did, “You should try it to Mr.Receiver.” Whether or not Daichi actually did wasn’t important because Asahi had enough skill to get the ball over consistently, but It was fun to scold Daichi anyway. The dark haired man just smiled in response. He looked proud at Suga’s instruction which made Suga’s heart skip a beat. He turned away before the blush on his face was visible.  


The 2v2 continued for another ten minutes before the gym door opened for Narita and Ennoshita. They both did a double take, visible confusion on their face. Suga could imagine they were panicking, trying to think why there was a game going on. Were they late? Was this a dream- why was it a 2v2? Their collective confusion only grew as Asahi hit the ball from the back of the court. It cleared the net, but was heading downwards. Tsukishima looked up and stepped below it, raising his hands to set. Suga could hear Ennoshita saying “no waaay” under his breath. Narita was next,  


“What the hell?” He exclaimed as Tsukishima set the ball in position for Yamaguchi. The shorter leaped up and spiked it back to the other side. Yamaguchi wore a huge grin and Tsukishima just smirked. Suga wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, it was beautiful. Daichi received it and the game continued, but the event was not forgotten.  


The door was thrown open again as Hinata shoved Kageyama out of the way to through first. Whatever they were arguing about was forgotten as they too looked confused. Narita, who was still standing by the entrance spoke up,  


“Tsukishima just set to him- to Yamaguchi, I mean”  


“Haw?” Kageyama whipped his head around to glare at Tsukishima. Hinata spoke at the same time,  


“Oooo! Did Yamaguchi spike it? I wanna join! I wanna spike!”  


“Wait for your own game!” A rough voice sounded from behind him and Coach Ukai stepped in. With the coach’s arrival, Daichi stopped the game and went over to talk with him. Yamaguchi ran to tell Hinata about the 2v2 and Suga pulled out his phone. He sent off a quick text to Yuji:  


_Suga: Just watched a 2v2... thinkin about u_  


He didn’t wait for a response because he wasn’t supposed to have his phone out at practice. He put it in his bag and went to stretch more with the others. It only took a few more minutes until everyone, including Yachi and Shimuzu were present. Coach Ukai clapped his hands to draw their attentions and started to speak.  


“Tomorrow we go up against Johzenji, I know some of you have been watching their previous games-”  


The logical side of Suga’s brain knew he didn’t know about Suga’s trip to Johzenji High, but he still reached up and absentmindedly touched his neck where Yuji had left marks two months ago. The Coach continued talking,  


“But they have a new line up this time, their third years are gone and their second year captain is a very impulsive person. We should be prepared for anything.” He scanned the faces of each player, when he was convinced they were all listening and taking it seriously, he blew his whistle to disperse them for group warm ups.  


There was idle chatter amongst them as they lined up in rows. The first few minutes of drills would be walking stretches across the gym. Suga looked down the line, he wanted to talk to Yamaguchi about Tsukishima, but the two of them were next to each other again and laughing at some inside joke and Suga didn’t want to intervene. He slid in next to Daichi instead. The two dropped into their lunges and Suga turned to speak.  


“Who’s idea was that this morning?”  


“It was one of those first years, I don't know how they got the key, but they were already practicing by the time Asahi and I arrived.”  


Suga grinned, “And you dragged them into a 2v2?”  


“Yeah, about that… How did you know that’s how Johzenji practices?”  


Suga blushed and looked away from Daichi’s eyes. This turned out to be a mistake, as his gaze fell onto his legs instead. His strong legs, mid lunge, shorts riding up… He felt a sense of deja vu, and a cold shiver, which was enough to snap him out of his fantasy,  


“Oh, I ran into him a while back- we... talked. About volleyball, yeah”  


“And he told you about practices? Why would he give you an advantage like that…” Daichi stopped to think, “Did he not know you were from Karasuno?”  


“mMhmn, yup.” Suga lied, he should’ve thought of a cover story sooner.  


Luckily, Daichi seemed to buy it and he laughed, “Oh boy, he’s gonna be surprised tomorrow then.”  


Suga looked back up at Daichi and chuckled nervously. What could go wrong tomorrow? He had seen Terushima a few times since and the other boy wasn’t stupid enough to announce… _whatever it was that they were_ to all their other team members… right? His nerves were completely forgotten when he saw the first years talking a few rows down from where he and Daichi were sprawled out. Tsukishima was smirking and holding his hands above his head in a mock set. Kageyama was scowling again, probably arguing with Hinata too, who was copying Tsukishima’s pose. Yamaguchi said something and then Hinata and Tsukishima switched to a blocking pose. Yamaguchi glanced over and caught Suga’s eye. He smiled wide and gave a thumbs up. Suga took that to mean that Tsukishima had gotten over their old argument and realized Yamaguchi was right. Suga smiled back, returning the gesture.  


Daichi noticed this exchange and said,  


“You obviously know more of the details, but I’m glad they’re talking again. And Tsukishima coming in early to practice is promising.”  


“Yeah, Yamaguchi called Tsukishima out on his ‘lackluster performance’ a while back. Tsukishima got annoyed I guess because they were on a bit of a break.”  


“Wow, those two are so inseparable I didn’t think it was possible for them to fight.”  


“I think It’ll just make them closer.”  


Warm ups were over quick and Coach Ukai organized them into ball drills next. Suga stayed next to Daichi on the receivers side of the net and their conversation continued.  


“So, besides 2v2 matches, did you learn anything else about Johzenji?” Daichi had switched the topic, but Suga was just glad they were still talking. Even if it meant talking about Johzenji, which would probably come back to bite him later.  


“Their team is run by energetic 2nd years. They’re all close friends outside of practice too- even the first years.” He paused to reposition himself for receiving a ball, then turned to look at Daichi, “You know they’re called the party school, right?”  


“Yeah”  


“Well they sure do play like it. They’ve become a super energetic, impulsive team.”  


Daichi seemed deep in thought, even so he received balls with ease. Suga wished he was that good at multitasking, because his voice trailed off and his arms dropped as he put all of his attention towards thinking about Daichi. The taller boy had his eyebrows furrowed as if he was trying to recall something. Even with his eyes half crossed, he was hitting the ball back into the air whenever it crossed over the net. Each time he received his legs flexed to push his body up towards the ball. If receiving volleyballs was an art, then Daichi had perfected it.  


“Weren’t they known for simplicity or something?” Daichi spoke after a few seconds. Apparently the thing he was trying to recall was Johzenji’s banner.  


“Yeeeees,” Suga said, shaking all thoughts of Daichi’s calves from his mind just in time to adjust his stance for the next incoming ball, “Simplicity and Fortitude.”  


Daichi hummed in response, so Suga continued,  


“They play it risky, crazy hits from out of the court and such, “ Suga recalled Yuji’s off-balance hit from the back of the court, “And the craziest part is that they all seem to expect the insane moves, they don't even bat an eye! Like when Y-”  


Suga froze, realizing he was about to call Terushima by his first name.  


“When… what? Suga?” Daichi cocked his head to the side.  


“When y...Yuu does his rolling thunder, haha,” Smooth recovery, Suga, “Yeah, they would probably try and do the same thing hahaha.”  


Daichi looked confused at Suga's use of Nishinoya's first name, but he seemed to shake the thought. Suga was breaking out in a nervous sweat. He decided to keep talking in hope that Daichi would forget about that little slip up,  


“And their capitan, Terushima, received a ball one handed- mid air- out of bounds. And it went over the net and they kept playing.”  


Daichi just stared incredulously, it was a few moments before he spoke,  


“Did you… Seduce him or something?”  


“Wh-” Suga’s mood did a complete 180 and he suddenly felt sick, there was no way Daichi could know. Did he notice the hickies that day and put two and two together? Maybe he had seen them together at Suga’s house. Oh god, he had said too much. He was sooo not ready to come out to Daichi today, this was a mistake. He needed to g-  


“I mean, how else would you get him to tell you so much.” Daichi started to laugh. A deep chuckle from the back of his throat. If Suga wasn’t so busy freaking out about Yuji, he would’ve been freaking out about how nice Daichi sounded.  


“Y- yeah, ahahah.” Suga chuckled nervously. Still trying to figure out how much Daichi knew.  


“Hey it was a joke, Suga, don’t go into overthinking mode.” He had a concerned look on his face and the laugh died out.  


Suga let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. A joke. Daichi knew nothing. His secret was safe, although he needed to be more careful in the future. He started to come up with a response to try and salvage the conversation. Laugh, or apologize or something. Luckily a great conversation starter….er, ender, came to him quickly, in the form of a volleyball to the head. He heard Yamaguchi calling his name just in time to turn towards him- and see the rapidly approaching ball.  


_Whomp._  


“Suga!” Daichi was at his side in an instant. Suga just groaned and rubbed his head in the spot where it got hit. He glanced across the net to see Yamaguchi looking at his hands in horror.  


“I’m so sorry Suga-san!” He bowed so deeply, so quickly, that it was a wonder he didn’t lose his balance.  


“Don’t worry Yamaguchi-kun! And Daichi, I’m fine!” He said honestly, the serve hadn’t had that much power, so it really didn’t hurt. To show that he was okay, he straightened up and went to walk in a small circle, “See?”  


They probably would’ve believed him except he honest to god tripped on a slippery part of the floor. He stumbled for just a second, barely lost his balance, but Daichi’s strong arms stabilized him. “Daichi, I’m okay really” He objected, but made no effort to get out of his grip. Daichi led him to the bench and sat him down. He let go of Suga’s arm, but Suga didn’t have time to pout because Daichi’s hand reached up and brushed against his forehead instead. Daichi gently pushed Suga’s hair out of his face to feel his skin where he had been hit. It was tender, but he barely even registered the feeling because all he could think about was Daichi’s hands in his hair.  


Maybe he did have a concussion, because he didn’t know how he worked up the courage to reach his hand up and rest it on Daichi’s. He slowly pulled it from his face and held it midair,  


“Daichi, really,” He said, holding eye contact with the brown-eyed boy, “Don’t worry, I’m alright.”  


“I’ll always worry about you,” Daichi responded softly. Suga flushed red, and went even redder when he realized that Daichi hadn’t dropped his hand. Daichi gave it a faint squeeze, “Rest for a few minutes, okay? I’ll get you water and then you can prove to me that you’re fine for our practice game.”  


Suga was in no position to argue, so he nodded his head. Regrettably, Daichi let go of Suga’s hand to go across the gym to bring him water. When he came back, Suga accepted the bottle with a “Thanks” and a soft smile.  


After a final check on Suga, Daichi went back to the drills, taking a quick detour to tell Yamaguchi to stop feeling guilty. Suga watched from the sidelines, making sure to put on a pout every time Daichi looked his way. He was still reeling of course, trying to find a heterosexual explenation for the events that just transpired. He reached up to touch the same spot where Daichi pushed his hair aside. They had been staring into eachothers eyes, not even two feet apart. And, ‘I’ll always worry about you’, Jesus Christ- Daichi was trying to kill him. Earlier this morning he woke up with the same mantra playing in his head that had been playing for months: _Get over your crush on Daichi. It’s time to get over him. Let's move on._ But now he wasn’t so sure.  


His bag was off to the side of the bench, so he reached over to it to pull out his phone. He was planning on texting Oikawa- they both liked to complain about their ‘straight’ crushes- but when he flipped it open there was a text from Yuji. A reply from earlier:  


_Yuji: well i’ll see you tomorrow right  
_

_Yuji: looking forward to it ;)_  


Suga gulped. Oh boy, the game against Johzenji was going to be.... interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know its around a month between chapter updates- but you have my word- i WILL finish this fic. Btws this chapter was 3500 words??? wild


	5. Suga can not stop thinking gay thoughts for five seconds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys are so so so patient,, thank you for that!! I started college right after posting the last chapter, so I've been pretty busy. There's another 1k words I've written for this chapter and even more i was planning on, but this was a good breaking point and I decided two smaller updates will be better than one 6k chapter that takes 2 months to write lmao. Overall, the game against Johzenji will probably be 2-3 chapters. After that be prepared for some more Oikawa ,':)
> 
> FYI. New username :)

October 25th- The day of the Qualifier Match against Johzenji High

_Booty Call: And then he just held your hand??? (O▽ O)9  
Suga: YeS he did  
Booty Call: youRE so lucky!! 1>!!  
Booty Call: you,,,, are going to get your man!!!  
Suga: nooooo, u really thinks o?  
Booty Call: (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
Booty Call: ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡ _

Suga blushed and put his phone down. Was this really happening? Did he really have a shot with Daichi? Oikawa seemed to think so... but what did he know. Just because Daichi had seemed concerned and made a more than average amount of physical contact with him didn’t mean he had any romantic feelings for Suga. They were just friends… good friends. He sighed and looked back at his phone to avoid looking at Daichi two seats ahead of him on the bus. Oikawa had sent a few dozen more kaomojis, but his last text stood out:

_Booty Call: Hey, 4real, do you want us to end our thing?  
Booty Call: dont let me stand inbetween you and true looove_

Suga frowned, he wished he felt confident enough to stop seeing Oikawa and dedicate himself to Daichi. But, there simply wasn’t enough proof that Daichi reciprocated his feelings… He couldn’t risk losing Oikawa over nothing. Or... thats what he told himself, but even as he was texting back, he know he and Oikawa would still be friends, even without their occasional makeout sessions.

_Suga: Nah, how would I ever live without you  
Suga: bsides, i’m sure its not like that with Daichi  
Booty Call: hey hey don’t give up hope now  
Booty Call: see you this weekend tho?  
Suga: yeah, the usual  
Booty Call: ;-3c_

“Suga,” Yamaguchi’s voice came from behind him and he tossed his phone aside so quickly he worried it may have cracked the screen. He turned to look at the other boy, who was standing in the isle of the bus -that was apparently stopped- with one hand on the back of Suga’s seat. He had a confused smile on his face and Suga wondered if he was judging him. He tried to think back to when he was texting, did he have a dumb grin on his face or something? Thankfully, before he could say anything lame, Yamaguchi spoke again, 

“Err, everyone else’s off the bus now. Tsukki and I were the last ones sitting in the back.”

As if on cue, from the front of the bus Tsukishima called out, “Yamaguchi, lets go.”

“Sorry Tsukki, coming!” Yamaguchi gave an apologetic shrug to Suga and jogged past to catch up to the tall blonde. Suga sat, embarrassed for a moment, had he really been so focused on his texts that he didn’t notice the bus stopping, or even Tsukishima walking past? He could only hope neither of them had seen the contact name as he gathered his bags and followed the first-years off the bus.

His face still felt warm as he stepped onto the pavement. The sight before him quickly shook him from his worries. The first thing he noticed was the large building at the edge of the parking lot. Sendai City Gymnasium. The road to nationals truly began here. He let that feeling of determination sink in for a moment before his eyes drifted to the team unloading their stuff from the bus’ undercarriage. Daichi however, was still, looking straight at him, eyes slightly narrowed and head cocked to the side. His thinking face. And in this moment, it was clear he was thinking about the gray haired boy. Good or bad, he couldn’t tell, but Suga felt a shiver run down his back anyway. He shook it off, smiled wide, and tried to look oblivious.

“Daichi!” Suga ran over to him with a hand outstretched, Daichi’s expression loosened up and shifted to horrified as he realized what was coming. _Too late_ , Suga smashed his palm into Daichi’s side with a mischievous snicker, “Daichi, Daichi, don’t worry we’ve got this!”

“Hhurnnhg, yeah.” The dark haired boy grumbled, but had a grin on his face. Next to them Hinata was practically bouncing with excitement. Shimuzu and Yachi finished rolling up the banner and Coach Ukai gestured towards the building as a signal for them to go. Suga and the team hesitated, not quite ready to rush into the action. As soon as they entered that building the pressure would be on. Hinata seemed to not share their reservation, as not even two seconds after Ukai dropped his hand, he darted forward towards the crowd of people gathered by the entrance. Kageyama buffered for a moment, then darted after the smaller boy, yelling some obscenity as he did. Suga laughed and next to him he could hear Yamaguchi making a snarky comment to Tsukishima,

“Hinata and Kageyama look like they’re living solely on knee-jerk reactions.” He snickered. Totally deadpan, in proper Tsukishima fashion, the taller boy responded,

“They’re like insects.”

Suga had to stifle his laugh on that one and Daichi sent him a scolding glare. He shrugged it off and started walking after the younger boys. They seemed to have stopped at the entrance, some other team staring down at them. Suga felt his protective side kick in and he pushed forward to see who was messing with his kids. When he got close enough to recognize the yellow jackets his confident step faltered. _Johzenji High._

The tall man that Hinata had appeared to run into was none other than Terushima Yuji and he looked up as the rest of Karasuno approached. Suga’s eyes locked with his and he pushed Hinata aside by the face to wave at him.

“Hey cutie with the mole! Nice to see you here babe!” Suga felt butterflies in his stomach. That was clever, Tanaka and Nishinoya were growling, so they had assumed the ‘cutie with the mole’ was Shimuzu. It was the obvious guess, but Yuji was still staring at Suga, and only Suga. He smiled back, blushing ever so slightly, and giggled as the duo of idiot second-years charged at the faux blonde. As they leapt at Yuji, Suga assumed all eyes would be on them and not he and Yuji’s silent exchange, he didn’t realize that at his side Daichi was looking back and forth between the two, the earlier thinking expression returned to his face.

Johzenji’s manager stepped in between Karasuno’s boys and Yuji to prevent a murder and with a smirk directed at Suga, Yuji turned away. He followed his team in, calling out over his shoulder, 

“See you in the first match.”

It was chilling, Suga knew first hand how good Johzenji was, and the rest of the team seemed daunted as well. That is- except Hinata and Kageyama, who ran in at full speed, shouting in unison,

“We’ll defeat them alllll!”

“Heh,” Suga nervously fidgeted with the strap of his bag, “They sure are in high spirits.”

“Thanks to them I can stay calm.” Daichi replied, bumping his shoulder against Suga’s.

“Ehehehe.” Asahi contributed with his signature nervous laugh.

Now blushing at the casual contact from Daichi, Suga followed him through the doors. They entered to the sounds of idle chatter, with the amount of people around, it was loud enough to be distracting. Daichi turned to Coach Ukai and started talking about what warm ups they should do. Suga gave him a nudge to inform him he’d be there soon. There was something he had to do first. He scanned the crowd for yellow jerseys, or hair. He noted Hinata pacing back and forth by the restroom door before he caught a glimpse of yellow rounding the corner. He headed after it with a fast walk and caught up just in time to see Yuji break apart from his team to duck into a bathroom. Suga checked over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t being followed, and headed into the bathroom after him. 

Yuji was waiting, as if he knew Suga was coming. He was leaning against the sink and smiling. The bathroom seemed to be empty, so Suga got closer, until the two were face to face.

“Hi there.” Yuji said softly, eyes already looking at Suga’s mouth.

“Huh, funny running into you here,” Suga replied, he was trying to joke, maybe keep a conversation, but his voice was already trailing off as he felt himself moving closer to the other boy, “Here at the Miagi pre...fecture qualifying.. mat.c- mmmph” Yuji pressed his mouth against Suga’s with a kiss, and for once he was grateful to be interrupted. Suga pushed Yuji against the wall and kissed him back. It was exhilarating, just what he needed to hype him up for the match. Suga’s tongue quickly gravitated towards Yuji’s piercing, and the other boy seemed to melt in Suga’s grip. Seconds later he pulled away and nestled his face into Suga’s neck. It took all of Suga’s willpower to push him away,

“Mmn, not the neck again, people will see.” Suga said between breaths. Yuji pouted in protest, and returned his hands to Suga’s face, pushing his now-slightly-sweaty hair back around his ears. Suga let himself be pulled in for another kiss when he heard the door handle creak. Before he could react, Yuji pulled back and with a flick of his wrist he turned on the faucet. The door opened as Hinata entered. The orange haired boy looked surprised, and wary of Yuji, who was now washing his hands, trying to act normal.

“Oh, Suga, hi!” Hinata dipped his head slightly, and paused for a moment, “Why are you so sweaty already?” He narrowed his eyes, glancing back and forth between the two older boys, “Both of you?”

“Er, well, T- Terushima-san and I were…” Suga stammered, why did Hinata have to ask so many questions, damnit!

“Sugawara-san was showing me his pregame warm up” Yuji interrupted, turning around to lean against the sink counter once more, “It’s a short, but rigorous full body workout.” he said, smirking at Suga.

“Mmm! Yeah, comparing workout routines!” Suga grinned. Luckily, Hinata was incredibly gullible, and any trace of suspicion left his face. He leaned back, stretching,

“Don’t give away any of our secrets okay!” He said as he headed into one of the bathroom stalls. Suga heard him lock the stall and he visibly relaxed, as did Yuji. The blonde haired boy laughed silently, and leaned in close to whisper, 

“See you after the game? Maybe, we can do a post game workout.” Suga nodded in reply and watched Yuji leave the bathroom. He tooootally was watching the whole boy leave, not just his ass. Suga himself started to follow, but Hinata’s voice spoke up from inside the stall,

“Suga, why is it that everytime I go to the bathroom I run into scary people?”

“You think Terushima is scary?” Suga laughed as a response.

“Well yeah! Not as scary as Ushijima and Oikawa at the other bathroom, but he’s got piercings and dyed hair. He could be a gangster!” Suga could practically visualize Hinata on the toilet, shivering as he thought of gangster Yuji. 

“Terushima’s not a gangster, but he is a good volleyball player, so I’m going to go warm up so we can beat him, okay Hinata?”

“Could you wait like….” Hinata’s voice came through the stall, “45 seconds? I’ll come with!”

Suga already felt awkward talking to the younger boy through the stall. Waiting for definitely more than 45 seconds in silence would be even weirder. However, Hinata did have terrible luck near bathrooms, so escorting him back to the court was probably the right thing to do. 

“I’ll be waiting right outside in the hall Hinata! Take your time.” Suga stepped out and leaned against the wall outside of the bathroom. He glanced around the crowded area, looking for familiar faces. There were lots of people in jerseys, but Suga didn’t see anyone he knew well enough to start a conversation with. He did see a couple people he wished he knew, Shiratorizawa’s Vice Captain, Soekawa Jin, had claimed one of the few chairs and was talking to some of Shiratorizawa’s fans. Suga always thought the other boy seemed interesting, he was a Vice Captain, but also not on the regular line up, just like Suga was. The few interactions they’d had were enjoyable, and it didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eyes too. It dawned on Suga that maybe he had a thing for volleyball captains and vice captains specifically. He pulled out his phone, still trying to kill time, and sent a quick text to Oikawa.

_Suga: Are all the volleyball captains we know hot?_

He decided to leave it at that and seconds later Hinata emerged from the restroom, shaking water off his hands. 

“Let’s warm up! Lets’ go defeat the great king right now! I’m ready!”

“Hinata, we have to play Johzenji and another team first. And then we'll only play Seijoh if they beat their first two teams.” Suga chuckled as they fell into step beside each other headed for the gymnasium. Hinata glared at Oikawa as they walked past Aoba Josai’s team gathered in the hallway. He looked disappointed when Oikawa was too wrapped up in his conversation with Iwazumi to notice his silent challenge. Suga looked at them too, curious as to why Oikawa was dangling his phone right out of Iwazumi’s reach, snickering like he was 13. Iwaizumi looked like he was trying to look annoyed, reaching half heartedly for the phone. Suga smiled to himself, they were so obviously in love with each other. Oikawa was 100% serious when he said Iwaizumi was straight, but Suga was sure that Iwaizumi just didn’t realize he was practically Oikawa’s boyfriend already. And on the off chance that they never got together like that, platonic love wasn’t something to write off as unimportant. 

They passed through the doors that led to the courts and Daichi waved them over as he noticed their entrance. 

“Where were you two? We’re about to start warm ups.”

Suga started to respond, but Hinata beat him to it,

“I was going to go to the bathroom but then I ran into Ushijima AND Oikawa and then Aone too, but he’s pretty cool so… AnYWay, I went to the other bathroom and I ran into Suga and Terushima comparing workout routines and then Suga waited for me and we walked here and I wanted to tell Oikawa that we were going to beat him but he wasn-'' Hinata kept talking, but Suga stopped listening at “Suga and Terushima comparing workout routines''. Apparently that's where Daichi stopped listening too because he was staring at Suga, looking very confused. Suga tried to convince himself that his face wasn’t bright red as he stared back.

Both he and Daichi opened their mouths, as if to speak, but Suga knew he would make things worse trying to defend himself and Daichi closed his mouth and just shot Suga another puzzled look instead. 

“Alright… Well, you’re here now, lets get warming up, we have a game to win!”


	6. Karasuno v Johzenji pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyyy I'm back with 4.5k for you all! A lot of the back half of this chapter are scenes of the game that happen in the episode s2 e15 "Place to Play". If you want to really paint a picture of the chapter, watch the episode and pretend Yuji is thinking about Suga instead of Hinata being a fun opponent lol.
> 
> POV switch to Daichi's POV happens twice between the "--> <\--"

\-->  
Daichi watched Suga turn redder and redder as Hinata rambled on. He still had that simple, innocent smile on his face, but Daichi knew better. He wracked his mind, “workout routines” in the bathroom? What could that even possibly mean… And he’d caught Terushima staring at Suga back at the entrance to the building… and Suga found out all that information about Johzenji from him a few months ago.  
  
He called out for the team to start warming up, but couldn’t shake the thoughts from his head. The two obviously knew each other more than they were letting on, but how, and why would Suga hide it from him? He couldn’t come up with a logical conclusion, the only things he could think of were either:  
  
One, Suga was bullying the poor second-year, forcing him to spill his practice strategies and now beating him up in the bathroom before the game. The only problem was that as much as Suga liked to roughhouse, Daichi couldn’t ever imagine him genuinely bullying anyone. As funny as it was to imagine him as some big mean gangster, it just wasn’t reality. Plus, Karasuno was a good team, they didn’t have to resort to violence off the court to gain an advantage.  
  
The second situation he came up with was that Terushima had a school boy crush on Suga. He wasn’t blind, he knew that Suga was attractive, he had a nice body from doing sports, and his personality was perfect parts responsible and fun. Every moment spent with him wasn’t worth missing for the world; he was truly the best person Daichi knew, and he bet many of his teammates would say the same thing. Honestly, it was a wonder he hadn’t had a girlfriend yet. If Terushima liked him it would explain why he told Suga so much about their practice routines. And “workout routine’ could be Terushima trying to show off his muscles. The problem with this scenario was why wouldn’t Suga tell Daichi? Unless he… No, Suga was straight… Right?”  
<\--

Suga was hyper aware of the fact that Daichi was still looking at him as he bent down to tie his shoes. He tried to ignore it, to ignore the fact that Hinata practically told Daichi about Yuji and him, ignore the fact that he was clearly blushing redder than a stoplight, and most importantly, to ignore the fact that Daichi looked really really good in his uniform. He just needed the game to start. Once they were playing he’d switch his brain into game mode and he knew Daichi’s would too. Because Daichi was actually in the game, he’d surely put 100% into receiving and would forget about Suga and Yuji. For a few hours at least. 

Hinata and Kageyama switched over from stretches to spiking warm ups before the rest of them. Suga watched them try to get in a few quicks before Johzenji entered the gym. The two couldn’t do quicks where an opposing team could see them unless they were in a match, they needed to keep it a secret weapon. It wouldn’t last long, if they kept winning everyone would soon know of the super quick attack, but for now, against Johzenji, they needed the edge. Hinata tossed the ball up for Kageyama to set, then darted away, far enough to build up the speed for his jump. He leaped up, seemingly floating at the peak of his jump, and- missed the ball. Suga had to resist facepalming, each time they played in a new place they had a tendency to mess up their first few quicks. In time they’d get past this, but for now it was good that Johzenji was a few minutes late. On the third try Hinata made contact with the ball and slammed it across the court. Suga grinned, exhilarated, that was enough to flip the switch. He stood up, leaned back for one final stretch, then jogged over to start bouncing a ball off his wrists. It was time to get serious. 

When Johzenji’s team came in through the opposite entrance, Suga didn’t even notice. He was setting ball after ball for his teammates to cycle through to try and spike. One of their usual pre-game group warm ups. Noya was up, not usually a spiker, but just as determined as everyone else- if not more so- Suga noticed two girls up in the bleachers waving at him. Ready to impress, Noya leaped into the air and connected solidly with the ball. It passed over the net flawlessly and he landed already pumping his fist,

“YeahHHHH!!!” He shouted out, earning an annoyed look from Tsukishima.

“Good one, Noya!” Suga cheered, jumping to meet him in a double high five. Daichi, who was next in the line laughed,

“Why do he and Shouyo always get high fives? Are you playing favorites?” He pouted. Suga was glad he was in volleyball mode, otherwise Daichi’s pouting voice would’ve rendered him useless for at least an hour. God, who gave him the right to sound like that.

Suga fake gasped, “How dare you- You hit the ball like that and I’ll prove you’re all my favorites.” 

He grabbed the next ball Yachi handed to him and readied the toss. He set it perfectly and leaned back to fully appreciate Daichi's approach. The taller boy bent his knees, ready to jump. His calves were tight, and Suga could see the power behind the muscles as he pushed off, into the jump. Suga let his eyes trail up Daichi’s body, he managed to pry his eyes from the bit of exposed skin where his shirt had ridden up, and he watched Daichi’s arm come forward from its outstretched position to meet the ball. As expected from Karasuno’s Captain, it was a remarkable spike. Not any better than Asahi’s or Oikawa’s, but that was an impossible standard and Daichi usually played receiver anyway. The ball crossed over the net with ease and Daichi was beaming as he landed. Suga grinned,

“Nice one, Daichi!” he shouted as he raised his hand. 

Daichi raised his own hand, expecting a high five, but Suga had other plans. He swung his hand past to collide with Daichi’s side. 

Bonk! Daichi doubled over, not in any real pain, more out of reflex. 

“hHhng, I should’ve expected that” He laughed breathily, looking up at Suga and smiling.

Suga faltered, once again hit by the truck that was his raging crush on Daichi. God, he was so pretty. He snapped back to focus and laughed along, pushing Daichi out of the way,

“Yamaguchi needs to spike, get outta here you big doof.” He said playfully, grabbing the next ball to set.

Daichi bumped against him, shoulder to shoulder and then headed to the back of the line to repeat the cycle. When Yamaguchi finished his spike Suga made a point to high five him too, sticking his tongue out at Daichi.

It was when a stray ball rolled into their court that Suga looked over and noticed that Johzenji had arrived and was practicing on the other side of the two court gym. Suga picked up the ball and tossed it to Tsuchiyu, the Libero, as he jogged closer to retrieve it. Tsuchiyu caught it and looked at Suga for a moment- recognition flashed in his eyes as he remembered the day Suga had come to Johzenji High. his face twitched momentarily, Suga couldn't tell if it was annoyance or amusement or perhaps he just needed to sneeze. He glanced back at where Johzenji’s team was gathered and as he’d come to expect, he found Yuji looking at him. He smiled, appreciating the yellow jersey and short shorts on the blonde. Yuji smirked, tugging at his lip with his teeth as he looked Suga up and down in his black jersey. Tsuchiyu made it back to his team, and threw the ball at Yuji’s face, breaking up the ‘moment’ that was happening. Yuji and Tsuchiyu seemed to argue, but from what Suga had seen of the team dynamics, he would bet there was no malice behind the words, just exasperated joking. Suga couldn’t help it, he watched Yuji’s ass as he walked off for a few seconds, then turned back to his own team, head back in the game.

\-->  
Daichi was trying to focus on the ball he was passing back and forth with Asahi, but his bumps were lackluster, he was distracted by Terushima on the other court. The blonde boy was staring at Suga. At first, when he noticed out of the corner of his eye, he was worried that it was some sort of challenge, and that he was trying to antagonize the team, but he did a 180 when he saw Terushima’s expression. He was blushing ever so slightly, looking up through his lashes and tenderly biting his bottom lip. There was no way to misinterpret that. Terushima was flirting with Suga. He really didn’t expect his prediction to be true… but he still had no proof that Suga reciprocated the feelings. Terushima turned away to head back towards his team so Daichi gleaned over at Suga. At this point he was practically passing the ball with his eyes closed, and he was surprised he hadn’t dropped it yet. He watched as Suga’s gaze shifted downwards ever so slightly, the hint of a smirk on his friend's face. He traced back the line of sight and went bright red as he realized Suga was looking at Terushima’s ass. _Holy shit._ The next pass hit him lightly in the chest before bouncing off onto the ground but he barely noticed. 

“Daichi? Are you okay?” Asahi asked nervously. Coming closer, he picked up the ball and rested it under his arm.

“D- Did you just see that?” Daichi turned to look at the taller boy and gestured wildly with his arm at where Suga stood.

“Huh?”

“Terushima was just flirting with Suga. And he was flirting back!”

“...Is that a problem?” 

“I…” Daich frowned, was it a problem? If Suga was happy then he couldn’t really complain. He felt hurt though and he couldn’t quite place it.

“Daichi, you shouldn’t have a problem with Suga liking guys, he’s still the same-”

“No! No no, sorry, I don’t have a problem with him being gay… I just…” he paused, still trying to figure out his own thoughts, “I wish he’d told me… I told him everything about Yui when we started going out… I kind of expected the same?” He knew that was a valid reason, so why did something still feel wrong? 

Asahi looked at him incredulously and sighed before he spoke again, 

“Don’t worry you guys are still best friends, I’m sure he’ll tell you when he’s ready, just give him time and don’t make it weird alright?”

“... Yeah, you’re right. Thanks Asahi.” Daichi smiled, he could think about this more later, right now he had to focus on the upcoming game.  
<\--

There was only a few more minutes until the game was scheduled to start. Coach Ukai called their ball drills to a halt and gathered the team around. Before he could start his motivational speech, a loud cheering came from across the gym. Suga, and the rest of the team glanced over, every player on Johzenji’s team had leaped into the air, cheering and whooping. They all looked like they were having fun, before the game even started. Suga found himself watching Yuji specifically, his tongue was sticking out and the piercing glinted under the fluorescent gym lights. Suga heard Kinnoshita mutter from besides him, 

“Wow a tongue piercing. I wonder how that feels.”

_Very, very good._ Suga found himself thinking. Luckily, Coach cleared his throat and gathered everyone’s attention back before Suga got lost down that train of thought.

“Alright guys, this is it, the qualifiers start today. We’re up against Johzenji, one of the top four teams during the Inter-High preliminaries. They’re a strong team and we don't know that much about them now that their third years are gone. We’ve heard that,” Ukai paused to vaguely gesture at Suga, “They’re super energetic and adaptable. You’ll see their banner says ‘Simplicity and Fortitude’, but don’t let that guide your opinions of them. We think they’ll take risks that lose them points, so we’re going to win this by doing what we’re good at, and doing it well. Got it?”

“YEAHHh!” The team called out enthusiastically, everyone with a determined look in their eyes. Daichi looked at Suga and after a second he grinned, bumping their shoulders together once again. Suga smiled back, but on the inside he was melting, was this ‘shoulder-brushing’ becoming a thing now?

“Alright then,” Ukai grinned too, looking just as determined as the players, “Johzenji chose to receive, so we’ll be serving first. Azumane, give it a good first hit, okay?” Asahi nodded in response and Daichi ended the meeting with their cheer,

“Karasuno, Fight!”  
A few team members dispersed to finish tying shoes, or getting a drink of water, but the third-years were idle. Suga heard Asahi gulp, and saw a nervous sweat already forming at his brow. He wanted to laugh, but he felt it too. An air of anxiety clung to the three, Suga knew they were all thinking it: This could be their last game together. He shivered. 

Over by the benches he saw Tsukishima put on his sports glasses and Hinata, in awe next to him,

“Wow, Tsukishima, your glasses are so cool!” Hinata exclaimed. Yamaguchi laughed awkwardly from his place at Tsukishima’s other side, and even the tall blonde himself replied. It was too quiet for Suga to hear, but when he was done he walked away from the small boy, towards the court. It led him past Suga’s group of three, and he couldn’t help but take note of the younger boy’s confidant posture. Daichi seemed to notice it too, because he spoke up,

“What’s up with the first-years looking more reliable than us?” He attempted to lighten the mood. Suga shook his own tight-lipped nervous smile and put on a real one,

“We third-years don't have time to be intimidated!”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Asahi added, starting to follow Tsukishima. Daichi and Suga fell into step behind him and soon the whole team was lined up on the court.

Johzenji’s team followed suit on the other side of the net, and the referee walked up with a ball in the middle, on the sidelines. It was time. A whistle was blown and following Daichi’s lead, Karasuno bowed in sync. Johzenji did the same. Despite being positioned diagonally across the court, Suga looked up and made eye contact with Yuji as both teams bowed and called out,

“Thank you for the game!” Suga narrowed his eyes and smirked, time to show Yuji what they were made of.

\-----------  
GAME START  
\-----------

Suga and the other non starting-line-up players moved off the court so the game could begin. From the sidelines Suga watched Asahi ready the ball for a serve. The whistle blew and Asahi tossed the ball up, wasting no time running in for the jump. His palm slammed against the ball and shot it across the net. It had a decent amount of power, but the aim was pretty straight on. Johzenji’s number seven got it with a shaky receive. The setter could only watch helplessly as the ball flew past him, out of reach across the court. Suga saw Narita relax, assuming the first point would be Karasunos, but Suga knew Johzenji, and he had a gut feeling that the point hadn’t been won yet. Tsuchiyu, the libero ran after the ball, but just barely managed to hit it with one arm. The ball went up into the air again, but was heading back court. In a flash Yuji was after it. Suga grinned and watched Daichi tense up as he no-doubt realized what was about to happen. Suga nudged Yamaguchi and spoke up, drawing the attention of the rest of the sidelined team,

“Watch this, he’s going to spike it back over the net.”

“What? That’s impossible.” Yamaguchi retorted.

“Yeah, he’d have to turn around, then jump, in the time it would take to do that the ball would be in the wrong spot, there's no way he c- “ 

Ennoshita trailed off because Yuji _had_ jumped. He was still facing away from the net, but his arm was now outstretched and everyone watched in awe as he started to turn around mid air. He was mid spin, and the ball was further away than was ideal. But this was Terushima Yuji- so he hit it anyway. The ball slammed across the net with enough power that Suga briefly worried about the blonde’s shoulder. Yuji landed, still off balance, but didn’t take his eye off the ball as he stumbled to find his footing. The ball shot between Kageyama and Tsukishima in the front row, and neither of them, nor the back row had time to react before the ball hit the ground and the referee called the point with a shrill blow of his whistle. 

Ennoshita still had his mouth open from when he had been talking but was frozen still in shock. Suga felt a cold sweat forming, He knew first hand not to underestimate Johzenji, but it had been two months since the day he saw Yuji in the gym, and this was during an actual game. It was breathtaking. Yuji leaped up with an energetic “Whoo!” and his team jumped with him to celebrate. Suga heard Tsukishima scoff on the court but the conversation that started between him and Tanaka was drowned out by Ennoshita regaining his composure,

“That’s incredible, normally you would return a back court ball with an underhand pass right?” He asked inquisitively.

“Correct! Trying to spike it back over like that is absolutely absurd.”

“This isn't good. It’s like we’re up against some crazy superstar baseball team during gym class.” Yamaguchi piped up.

“Exactly! They don’t fit any sort of pattern and we don’t know what they’re going to do next.”

“The worst part is that none of that is by coincidence.” Suga chuckled, watching the next serve. 

“Uncertainties are normal for Johzenji… that’s their secret weapon.” Ennoshita said dead serious. 

Suga nodded in agreement and together they watched Asahi bump the ball to Kageyama who set up Hinata as a diversion and then set the ball to Tanaka for a spike. It was a little off, and when Tanaka hit the ball it just barely rolled over the top of the net. The blocker had fallen for the dupe and jumped by Hinata meaning Johzenji’s Number 3 could only watch in horror as the ball cascaded down just out of his reach. Even Suga thought this point was theirs, but the black haired boy changed his approach and stuck out his left leg instead. It totally threw off his momentum, but he kicked the ball back into the air before unceremoniously crashing to the floor on his back.

“Yeah! Takeharu nice one!” Yuji cheered as the ball flew past Tsukishima and hit the ground just out of Tanaka’s reach. Suga smiled, heart beating fast, high on adrenaline just from watching the game. He had been a little worried about how Yuji would act during the game especially after their encounter in the restroom, but the captain was putting everything into the game, nothing to worry about. 

The score was 0-3, Karasuno-Johzenji, but it was Johzenji’s serve and thankfully it seemed like they were still warming up to the court, because Number 2, Kazuma Bobata served it directly into the center of the net. 1-3. 

“Wow,” Yamaguchi shuffled his feet, “Look at how he's still smiling… even after he messed up the serve…” Sure enough, Kazuma had a sheepish grin on his face and Number 7, a wing spiker named Rintaro, was ruffling his hair, also laughing.

“That’s a secret weapon too, having fun like that.”

“Mmm”

The ball went to Karasuno next and Tsukishima stepped up to serve. After a bit of back and forth the point was Karasuno’s. So was the next one. Suga’s teammates on the court were getting used to the crazy plays, but it wasn’t going to be sustainable. Suga couldn’t help but notice they were unconsciously speeding up. At this rate Tanaka and Asahi would run out of steam before the second half, and Tsukishima looked agitated, having to run and block before he could properly think. They continued on at this pace, both teams scoring occasionally, until the score was 7-8. 

The next ball from Johzenji hit the top of the net again. Tanaka dove for it and sent it back up into the air, but with way too much force. It went flying out of the back court.  
“Dammit! Sorry, that went long!”

“It’s alright!” Daichi called out as he started to run for the ball. 

Suga knew he wasn’t going to make it, he was pretty sure Daichi knew too, and apparently so did Hinata, who charged past him in a flash and leaped for the ball. He sent it over the net with a back handed receive. The bench celebrated for a moment, but a clear problem was rapidly approaching. Hinata had leaped for the ball when he was already out of the bounds of the court, and now, mid-air he was headed straight towards the half wall sectioning off the bleachers from the game area. Instead of hitting head on, he twisted midair, so his feet were facing the wall. It was eerily similar to the twist Yuji had done earlier. Hinata’s feet hit the wall and he pushed off, springing up and then landing again and running back into play. The fans were cheering for him, both Karasuno’s and Johzenjji’s. 

“That was a wall jump…” Ennoshita, muttered in awe.

“Like spiderman!” Narita laughed.

“Johzenji’s not the only team with guys that are so athletic that you’ll never know what they’ll do next.” Suga smiled, proud of his kouhai.

This jump would’ve left any other team speechless, and intimidated, but it only seemed to make Johzenji more excited. Suga caught Yuji’s eye and he had a wild grin on his face and sweat dripping from his brow. He ran to receive the ball from Hinata, but missed it by just a fingertip’s reach. 8-8. 

It was- quite frankly- impressive that the two teams managed to stay relatively tied for so long. They made it to 17-16 with neither team ever gaining more than a two point lead over each other. It was fun to watch, but it must’ve been exhausting to play. Always fighting tooth and nail, never having the comfort or moral boost that came with a solid lead. It was making the team desperate. Yuji had just spiked the ball over and Noya received it with just a little too much force, sending it back over the net in an easy to hit arc. On the other side of the net Johzenji was in the perfect position to put the ball straight into a set… Which is why Suga paled as Takeharu, the setter, ran back, away from the ball. Suga almost laughed as Tsukishima and Yamaguchi both tensed up at the same second, but was too focused on the play. Katsumichi Higashiyama, one of the team's normal wing spikers, had run up for the set and Takeharu was ready to spike it over. 

Suga looked over at Yuji who was just sitting back, out of the way, also watching the incredible play go down. He met Suga’s eye and smirked. With one hand he gestured to his teammates, then wrapped his arms around himself in a hug. It was… honestly really sweet. He knew how Yuji was in bed, and he’d seen him be flirtatious and joking around, but it turns out he was also a really, genuinely, good friend. It kind of made Suga feel bad about never getting to know him outside of their physical meetups. Then Tsuchiyu said something that drew Yuji’s focus back into the current play, so Suga followed. 

The setter’s spike had paid off and earned Johzenji a point. Karasuno looked pissed, Kageyama and Tanaka were both fuming and Daichi wore a tense smile he usually reserved for when his own team was goofing off. Johzenji served again and Daichi hit it up for Asahi to spike back over easily. Johzenji received and Takeharu returned to his position as setter. He jumped up towards the ball and- Kageyama saw it at the same time Suga did, his thumb was a little further back than a normal setting motion would have it- a clear sign that he was going to try a setter dump. Kageyama aggressively jumped up close to the net to block. Tanaka and the crowd cheered but Suga winced, from the sidelines they had all seen the block clearly. The ball bounced to the floor, Karasuno's point, 18-17, and Kageyama wobbled as he turned around. His face was red and blood dripped from his nose. He had blocked that dump with his face. Yuji and Takeharu were standing frozen on the other side of the net, like deer caught in headlights. Yuji glanced at Suga and sheepishly mouthed something that looked like “Whoops, our bad.” Suga tried to gesture in a way that conveyed “accidents happen”  
but just ended up returning the sheepish grin with one of his own before the referee called a time-out.

“Kageyama!” Daichi and Hinata ran up to him and guided him towards the bench, Suga met them there.

“Kageyama! Is it broken? Are you going to die?” Hinata asked, his usual string of rapid-fire questions.

“Dumbass, I’m fine!” He snapped back, pinching his nose.

“Kageyama… You’re going to have to be subbed out until your nose stops bleeding.” Daichi said gently, putting a hand on Hinata’s shoulder.

“What? I’m fine! My nose isn’t bleeding!” Kageyama growled, pulling his hand away to emphasize his point. An effort that only allowed his nose to bleed more without the pressure sealing it.

“It is! Kageyama why would you try to lie about that!” Suga half chuckled as he joined the group. He just kept growling as Shimuzu passed him a wad of tissues and Suga and Daichi looked at each other to share a laugh, their first-years sure were something. 

“You guys are speeding up and getting pulled into their antics,” Ukai spoke up, making use of their time-out time while Shimuzu checked Kageyama’s face for other injuries on the bench, “This will be a good moment to cool down, so go get yourself checked out, okay?” 

“Don’t worry Kageyama! Leave it to me! We’ll win!” Hinata shouted determinedly. Suga laughed,

“Why don’t you leave it to us third-years.” He pointed his thumb to his chest. Kageyama didn’t respond, just continued to growl as Yamaguchi pushed him out of the gym towards the nurses station. Daichi laughed and lightly bumped Suga’s shoulder,

“I’ve been looking forward to you setting for us in a real game.” 

“I mean it, we’ve got this!” Suga responded, blushing bright red. Daichi had sounded so sincere, his voice sweet like honey. Daichi brushed his hand across Suga’s shoulder as he walked back out onto the court,

“Let’s go, Vice Captain.” 

Suga shivered and headed onto the court, greeting Asahi with a high five as he made it to his spot. He looked out to survey the court and right across the net stood Yuji, grinning at him with a renewed hunger in his eyes. 

“Hey Suga, ready to play?” He all but _purred_. The whistle blew to restart the match and Yuji winked, still holding eye contact with Suga while Asahi readied a serve behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Daichi is starting to figure things out ehehehe... now he just needs to figure out his own feelings :P
> 
> ALSo, very excited... next chapter has some Yuji vs Daichi on the court


End file.
